Category: Trusting

God promised Canaan to the Israelites and wanted them have a glimpse of it. He orders Moses to choose twelve leaders, one from each tribe, to spy Canaan (Numbers 13 & 14). These twelve leaders spy the land for forty days. They find that Canaan was indeed flowing with milk and honey. They get to walk in it and feel it. Their hearts were filled with joy that they were going to inherit a place so fertile and beautiful like Canaan.

However, there was one problem. The people who lived there were giants. These spies looked like grasshoppers before them. Now their hearts were troubled and they were totally discouraged. They thought they would never be able drive away these giants from the land. They spread this bad report among the people. Now everyone started complaining and whining.

All, except Caleb and Joshua, were scared.

Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit and a different perspective. They believed that God was with them and will help them defeat the giants. They urged the people not be afraid. They told them to have faith in God and His power. But the people tried to stone both of them.

Now God was angry. The faithlessness, the whining and the grumbling was a great insult to God’s promise and His power. He was now contemplating about sending a plague among the people. If not for Moses’ pleading before God, they would all have been destroyed that day. But God said in His anger that none would enter the promised land, except Caleb and Joshua.

Forty years later. Israelites inherit Canaan. The people who had doubted and grumbled were all dead. It was Joshua and Caleb who led the people into the promised land.

Lessons to be learnt:

1) When God makes a promise it is sure and will definitely get fulfilled.
Heaven and earth may change, but God and His word will never change.

2) When you doubt God’s promises it’s an insult to God.

3) Both faith and fear are contagious.
It’s yours to choose which one to spread.

4) Present circumstances and the promise will always contradict each other.
It’s yours to choose on which one to set your eyes on.

5) A leader should always have a strong faith and clear vision about the promise.
This applies to your family, business, work, etc….

6) There’s always a waiting period before the promise gets fulfilled.
It builds up your faith and prepares you to receive the promise.

7) Walk by faith and not by sight.

“Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” – St. Augustine

The following is one of my favorite songs:

He did not bring us out this far to take us back again.
He brought us out to take us into the promised land.

Though there be giants in the land, we will not be afraid.
He brought us out to take us into the promised land.

There are some unanswered prayers in my life. These requests are very easy for the Lord to grant it to me. But He doesn’t do it. At times it’s really hard to understand the things He does and why He allows certain things to happen. Not everything goes according to the way that you plan. All your dreams are shattered. In situation like that it’s hard to understand where you are going. It’s frustrating. It’s a difficult to accept sudden change of events that you had never expected to happen. Doubt suddenly creeps in all that you do. There’s always a fear of failure. Pessimism raises it’s head. Faith loses its meaning. Questions like: ‘Is it worth trusting God?’ keep hitting hard at you.

If life is a race…..it’s hard to keep running. So what do I do? There’s one thing I don’t want to do….that is, to stagnate in one place. If I’m not able to run, I just want to walk slowly. Praying a little and crying a little. Getting some comfort from His words.

One special verse that keeps me going is Jer 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

But accepting to tread an unknown path is not easy. Trusting becomes a difficult task. I’m reminded of what Philip Yancey states in his book ‘Reaching for the Invisible God‘: ‘to fear God or to fear everything else, to trust God or to trust nothing’

I feel it’s better to trust a little in God than to trust nothing and living in fear and depression. So let me keep trusting and walking even if the it’s the darkest night. Maybe, the dawn is just in sight.

Diana, Sharla and many other bloggers are meditating on the book of Proverbs for the month of February. Althought I couldn’t get myself involved fully, I thought I could get into the Proverbs ‘train’ occasionally and travel with them. So here I am.

I was blessed by the 5th & 6th verse of the 3rd chapter of Proverbs. It says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

When I read these verses, I was reminded of a story from my sunday school days.(many of you might have heard this before)

A mountain climber was climbing a very steep snowy monuntain. It was getting darker and the climbing got tougher. He was very tired and at one point he lost his balance and his feet slipped. He was now rolling down the mountain like a ball and was getting badly hurt because of the rocks that were on the way. Since it was dark he could not see anything and couldn’t hold on to anything strong that could stop him from falling. Suddenly, in that dim light, he saw a rope beside him and took hold of it. Inspite of holding the rope he couldn’t stop himself from falling down further but still he held on to it tightly. At last, to much of his relief, he came to a stop. But he found that he was now hanging in the mid-air supported only by the rope. By now he was badly hurt and was bleeding. He didn’t know what to do. Finally, realising that he had no other option, he cried unto God to somehow get him out of this. And God told him to take his hands off the rope that he was holding. He was shocked to hear it. It was like adding more fuel to the fire. He felt that it was the most foolish advice and he regreted asking God for help. He tried many ways to save himself but couldn’t and was finally dead.

The next morning, when another set of climbers came to that mountain, they were astonished to find a dead man hanging on to a rope that was only five feet above the ground. If only he had trusted God and took his hands off the rope, he would have had a very safe landing.

Trusting in God isn’t easy at all times. It’s a matter of choice. Sometimes trusting in God and obeying what He bids us to do may defy pure reason and seem illogical. We, finite beings with our limited perception, react to pressing circumstances around us and fail to see the big picture and with our finite minds we cannot comprehend the mind of an Infinite Being. So trusting and obeying God makes sense. Though we may not be able to see immediate results, but in the longer run it really pays off.

The most comforting truth is that He has already gone through this path and has carried this cross, so I would rather trust and follow Him who knows the way than lean on my own understanding. And in all my ways I will acknowledge Him and He will make my paths straight, however crooked they may be. Because of His unfailing love He will not forsake us and His amazing grace will take us to through any rough path. All we need to do is simply trust.